If
you spend too much time thinking about blessing, as I have done this
week, it becomes clear why there is a book called, “When Bad Things
Happen to Good People.”¹
(Which, if you haven’t read it, is a great book.)  By dictionary
definitions, a blessing is “God’s favor and protection.”²
There are actually a whole bunch more definitions, as it is a noun
and a verb, used both for what we do and say and what God does… but
that’s the important definition from which all the others flow.
“God’s favor and protection,” or if you’d like,  Wikipedia adds a
bit of nuance when it defines it this way, “A blessing is the
infusion of something with holiness, spiritual redemption, divine
will, or one’s hope or approval.”³
The root words that became “blessing” in English were the words
for “blood”/”mark or consecrate with blood” that eventually
got influenced in meaning because it was used to translated the Latin
word benedicere ‘to praise or worship.”⁴

This
seemingly sweet, gentle, kind, inoffensive little word has a lot
going on.  It is reasonable to assume, including from Biblical
stories themselves that from ancient times, the concept of blessing
had a lot to do with: fertility (of animals, crops and people) and
winning at battle.  All of which were life or death issues, to large
degree out of control of the people participating in them.
Therefore, they were looking for supernatural help along the way
to stay alive.  Those who had many children, or got rich, or won
in battle were thought to be blessed.  

The
Bible also contains a counter-narrative.  While much of the Bible
says that God’s favor and protection made people healthy, wealthy,
and happy while God’s disfavor and lack of protection made people …
sick, poor, or dead… it isn’t the only perspective.  The book of
Job offers a strong objection!  So does Jesus.  The Sermon on the
Mount claims that the poor, the hungry, and the mourning (etc) are
the blessed people.  That’s counter to the basic understanding of
“God’s favor and protection.”  

It
seems like there is a big debate happening, even within the Bible
itself, about the nature of God.  One side is reflected in our
dictionary definitions, and it is far and away the more popular side.
It is the side of traditional theology, where God is understood as
being like a supernatural parent – punishing and rewarding children
as God sees fit.  Many people will talk about things that happen in
life saying, “everything happens for a reason” or “God has a
plan” and when the things that happen are terrible things, they
explain that “God is teaching a lesson.”  

But
along with Job, and the Sermon on the Mount, and the rest of the
minority report, I think these concepts of God are outdated and
unhelpful.  Spong names it this way, “We once saw God as the prime
mover in the issues of sickness and health.”⁵
“We once saw God as the source of the weather, and we interpreted
drought, floods, storms, hurricanes and tornadoes as expressions of
the divine will.”⁶
“We once thought that God led our nation into battle, defeating
our enemies or, if our faithfulness to this God had been badly
compromised, allowing us to taste the Divine wrath in defeat.”⁷
“Yet I do not define God as a supernatural being.  I do not
believe in a deity who can help a nation win a war, intervene to cure
a loved one’s sickness, allow a particular athletic team to defeat
its opponent, or affect the weather for anyone’s benefit.”⁸

That
seems to reflect the beatitudes and Job in terms of understanding
God.  In this conception, God’s favor or protection aren’t
particularly meaningful concepts.  That’s good news!  If God plays
favorites, I’m not impressed.  If God protects only some, I’m not
impressed, and if God is protecting all of us, God is a lousy
protector.  I’d like to propose an alternative definition for
blessing, one that I think fits the Hebrew Bible lesson today.  

Abraham
is told he is chosen, favored, uniquely blessed.  But in the same
thought he is told that the reason he is blessed is so that he can be
a blessing.  It is through him that all people in the world will be
blessed! Blessing, then is a useful sort of thing. It is a
contribution to the goodness of life, not just for one’s self, but
for the good of the whole.

Now,
the good of the whole is something called the Kin-dom, and most
scholars agree it is the whole point of Jesus’ ministry and the
ministry of the followers of Jesus since his death.  The Kin-dom is
the time when all people will have enough to thrive!  There will be
deep peace, and wholeness, cooperation, connection and love.  The
Kin-dom is when all the people treat each other as kin, and no one is
outside the circle.   (If you haven’t heard about this before, you
may be more familiar with the words “kingdom” or “realm of
God”, the choice to just use kin-dom is the choice to take out the
hierarchy from the old language.  It may also be important to note
that the traditional language is that the kin-dom is “breaking into
the world” meaning that it is here in moments and in parts, but
coming in completion.)

My
proposal is that a blessing is anything that is being used for
building up the kin-dom. So a blessing might be a great book or
a wise teacher, a profound work of art, a gentle smile in the midst
of a hard day, a fantastically fun song, a time of prayer,  a
challenge, a coat, or a cup of coffee – for example.  That is, many
of the things that have traditionally gotten labeled blessings still
get to be under the new definition.  It is just that we don’t think
we have “blessings” because God loves use more, or protects us
uniquely or functions like punishing and rewarding parent.  Instead
we are freed to pay attention to the many wonderful things in life
that can be profoundly useful for ourselves and others in making the
world more fair, equitable, just, wonderful, joyful, healed, and
whole.

Now,
it seems like time to get around to John Wesley, who is quite famous
for getting into a huge fight over blessing.  I’m amazed, frankly,
that enough people cared about this to make an international argument
happen, but I apparently lack sufficient angst over it.  John Wesley
developed a concept of “second blessing.”  It worked like this:
the process of coming into relationship with God is a blessing itself
but the process of becoming loving like God is was a SECOND blessing.
Wesley suggested that these could be instantaneous experiences or
long-term growth experiences.  The first was justification, the
second sanctification.  If I’m being honest, he thought of the first
part as coming to know your sinfulness and experiencing forgiveness
for sin and the second as learning to sin no more.  

People
were SERIOUSLY upset by this.  Having done the research on their
arguments, I’ve concluded that it REALLY doesn’t matter.  While
believing in the capacity of people to grow deeper into love and let
love and grace define their lives is important, defining how and when
this process happens just … doesn’t.

I’m
more interesting in examining if the word “blessing” here.  If we
use the traditional language, if blessing is God’s favor, and coming
into relationship with God is a blessing, then only those whom God
favors are in relationship with God?  (And God has favorites, and you
can identify them because they’re the ones who proclaim a
relationship with God.) That’s circular argument spun so tightly as
to make my head spin.

What
would it mean if God chose some people to have faith and others not
to?  What would it mean if only some of us were favored with the
chance to become more loving? God’s protection and favor equate to
favoritism, and in essence blaming the victim!

To
make it worse, there are supposed to be two blessings in this.  OYE.
But, if we remove the bad theology from the definition of blessing,
and try out the new definition, things change.  If blessings are
anything being used for the building up of the kin-dom, then
certainly relationships with God and deepening love are blessings.
It doesn’t make the argument about the timing and order matter, but
it does justify the use of the word!

The
new definition also makes space for the ritual of the shared
communion table as a potential blessing.  It seems obvious to me that
the sacraments are meant to be blessings that build us up so that we
are blessings in the world.  That is, they remind us of our identity
and purpose so that we can be useful for the building of the kin-dom.
I recognize that this is how things are “meant to be” and saying
that communion is a “potential blessing” was intentional.  There
have been times in my life when receiving a little portion of a loaf
of bread and a sip of grape juice has filled my entire being with
wonder, connection, and grace.  There have been a whole lot more
times, though, when bread and cup have been perfunctory.  Most of the
time, the actual elements of communion pale in comparison the feeding
I get from being with the people I receive the gifts with.  People,
it is clear, can be blessings.  (And you don’t have to be perfect to
be one!)  We are useful in building each other up, we contribute
toward the kin-dom when we treat each other as kin.  This is a place
potential can become reality.

So,
Amazon.com, you ask?  Well, I’ve heard people call it a blessing
because they really like getting things they order quickly.  If they
are referring to “God’s favor and protection” in enabling
consumerism, that’s terrible!  I’ll concede, though, at times, that
physical items can be useful for building up the kin-dom.  John
Wesley’s second blessing versus amazon.com?  I’m not willing to give
either one the win.  But redefining blessing to empower us and
relieve God of undue insults?  I’m giving that the win!  Thanks be to
God for our blessings!!  Amen  

1 Rabbi
Harold Kushner.
2 Apple
dictionary.  “Blessing.
3 Wikipedia
“Blessing” accessed on August 20, 2015.
4 Apple
dictionary.  “Blessing.”
5 John
Shelby Spong A New Christianity for a New World: Why Traditional
Faith is Dying and How a New Faith is Being Born
(HarperSanFrancisco, 2001) page  22.
6 Spong,
22.
7 Spong,
22.
8 Spong,
3.

—————–

Rev. Sara E. Baron
First United Methodist Church of Schenectady
603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305
http://fumcschenectady.org/
https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady 

August 23, 2015